are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that

ye may be able to bear it'.

Now there seems something incongruous in the statement, 'a way to

escape that ye may be able to bear it', for if we 'escape', surely we avoid

the burden instead of bearing it?  The word translated, 'way of escape' is

the Greek ekbasis and occurs nowhere else except in Hebrews 13:7 where it is

'the end' of the conversation of the Hebrew teachers.  J. N. Darby has seen

this, for in his translation he gives the following: 'But will with the

temptation, make the issue also'.

He Who sends the trial has 'an end' in view.  It is not arbitrary nor

capricious.  Not only so, He shapes, holds, assures 'the end', and once we

are assured of that, we are enabled to bear whatever burden is placed by the

God of love upon our shoulders.

So, to come back to 1 Corinthians 15:24.  When once we are assured that

there is an end in view, and that that end will be attained, we are

strengthened in faith and hope, forasmuch as we know that our labour will not

be in vain in the Lord:

'Then cometh the End -- that God may be all in all'.

This is the end in view in 1 Corinthians 15; this is the end in view in

the Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles and the Apocalypse.  This should be

the 'end' of all our activity, life and service.  We perceive from verses 24

-28 that there are a series of steps indicated before the end is attained,

steps marked by the words 'when' and 'then'.  We now turn our attention to

these and trust that as we follow in faith in the footsteps of the Son of

God, our hearts will 'burn within us' as we see what is implied by God being

'all in all'.

The 'end' or goal of the ages will be reached 'when He (i.e. Christ)

shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father' (1 Cor. 15:24),

but this, the ultimate movement is the last of a series of steps:

'When' He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power;

'When' all things shall be subdued.

Even so, there is a further comment that breaks into the sequences,

'For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.

last enemy that shall be destroyed is death' (1 Cor. 15:25,26).

From this passage we perceive that 'enemies' persist long after the

Millennium, and so does 'death', and death cannot be divorced from dying

persons, which in its turn fits in with the great overall theme of this

chapter, namely that only in resurrection can the 'end' be attained and its

persistence assured.

There is an important lesson awaiting us in the examination of the term

'deliver up', which is a translation of the Greek word, paradidomi,  This

word is a compound of para, 'beside' and didomi, 'to give'.  It is translated

in a variety of ways, but before considering these variations, we draw

attention to two occurrences of paradidomi the one lying at 'the beginning',